Popular online bookmaker Bet365 have beaten their rivals to the punch in the battle for Cheltenham Festival ante-post custom by becoming the first firm to go Non-Runner No-Bet.

The Stoke-on-Trent based operation have dangled a real carrot of opportunity to punters by promising to refund stakes on all the four Championship races (Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase, World Hurdle and Gold Cup) at the festival if the horse in question doesn’t line up on the day.

CHELTENHAM NON RUNNER NO BET

Bet365 announce NRNB for Festival
Bet365 announced this morning that they are the first bookmaker to offer Non Runner No Bet on the 2014 Cheltenham Festival! Take advantage here plus pick up a £200/€200 free bet along the way!

So for example, if you are looking to back Bobs Worth at 11/4 for the Gold Cup, and unfortunately for the horse, his connections and yourself he is pulled out of the race for whatever reason, Bet365 will refund your stake.

It’s quite an unusual move by the firm to act this early on in the season with this type of offer as bookies usually wait until perhaps three or two weeks before the start of the extravaganza before announcing this offer.

Not only that, but Bet365 are also offering punters the chance to get on at the advertised prices with their brilliant Best Odds Guaranteed promotion, which means punters will get paid out on the starting price if it’s bigger than the price taken when the bet was struck.

A representative for the online betting superpower said: “We are now Non-Runner No-Bet and Best Odds Guaranteed on all four Championship races at this year’s Cheltenham Festival. So when you place your bet on any of these races, take the price on your selection and, if the SP is bigger, you’ll be paid out at the bigger odds. You also have the added insurance that if your selection doesn’t run, you’ll get your money back.”

The 2014 Cheltenham Festival starts on Tuesday 11th March with the feature Cheltenham Gold Cup ran on the last day of the meeting on Friday 16th March and sandwiched in between are a plethora of big betting opportunities that can make or break or bookie’s turnover for the entire season.

Pat Cooney, Bet365’s racing PR man, has admitted that the move to offer this promotion so soon in the season is down the level of requests from their customer base.

He said: “We’ve been inundated with requests to go NRNB, and customers can now bet with confidence with this ‘safety net’ in place.

There’s no doubt that this year’s Cheltenham Festival looks to be bigger and better than ever, with attendances set to break the record set in 2013 of 235,000 racegoers.

The highlight will be the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which forms the jewel in the Festival crown and is the pinnacle race on Friday, won last year by Barry Geraghty on board Bobs Worth.

“Our figures show that we’ve lost every year we’ve offered NRNB so far in advance of the Festival, but are happy to take our chances again.”